Kieron Bowie says sinking Celtic has fuelled belief Hibs can charge for the Scottish Cup and spark another special Sunshine on Leith singalong.
The striker produced a superb hour on his first club start to help David Gray’s side sink the champions. Bowie kickstarted the move for the first of the two Josh Campbell goals which dismissed Brendan Rodgers’ big guns. It was a huge day both for Hibs and their back-to-fitness hitman. Not only did Gray’s team extend their unbeaten run to 13 matches, they also proved they can beat Celtic ahead of the Scottish Cup quarter-final clash on Sunday week.
The holders will be even tougher to overcome in Glasgow’s East End, but Bowie and his team have injected confidence in their silverware bid. The attacker said: “Obviously, we went into the Scottish Cup thinking this is a possibility, we can win this. And now, obviously, we’ve shown what we can do against that opposition, we can hopefully do that again.
“We’ve shown 13 games now unbeaten, I think that’s a club record. We’ve shown what we can do after a really tough start and I was in the stand watching the lads for the majority of it .
“The main thing now, the message is just top six, cement our place in the top six and then after that we look forward. But it’s been a really good season and, hopefully, it can have a really good end to it as well.”
Bowie is just thrilled to get the kick-off nod after months of anguish following his £600,0000 summer move from Fulham. Full of promise in four sub appearances, he was cut down by a serious hamstring injury which required surgery.
Bowie returned last month after a patient rehab was supplemented by five more replacement outings building him up, he was unleashed against Celtic. He said: “It’s emotional. I didn’t know how to feel. I’m so happy, but I’m also sad because it’s been 10 months since my last club start, so it’s been a long road and this is what we work towards and I’m glad to play my part.
“I spoke to the gaffer a few weeks ago. Obviously, physically, I was ready to start, but psychologically, [he was asking] whether I was ready or not and I was like definitely like: I’m ready and I just need to take it and try and cement my place in the team.
“I think it’s because it’d been that long and it’s just getting back into that rhythm of starting. I’m in that place now where I’ve come off the bench enough times and I’m ready to start and I feel like it’s easier than coming on and trying to make an impact when there’s only 15-20 minutes to go.”
It took him less than two minutes to make that impact. Dropping short to link the game, he fed Nathan Moriah-Welsh to release Nectar Triantis who put Campbell in for the opener. While his team-mate subsequently headed from Martin Boyle’s cross for the winner, Bowie spent his own 60 minutes giving Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty a tough time.
He got Carter-Vickers’ shirt after full-time and smiled: “I don’t know if he wanted my shirt, but I got his anyway! I just thought I should get someone’s shirt, so I just went to the kitman and asked him and he said yeah but you need to give him yours.”
Bowie added: “Obviously they’re the two best defenders in the league, so to put a bit of pressure on them and to know that I can go up against them is really good. It gives me a lot of confidence.
“They’re used to dominating the ball and they did, but when it came forward, we were just trying to get on them and not let them have any time. At the start, you just want to sort of ease into the game, you don’t want to do anything stupid and, obviously, I’ve managed to play my part in the goal.
“I like to think I can do a lot of technical stuff, but then also I can put defenders under a bit of pressure and then the lads can play off me. You just want to go out there and improve yourself and I feel like I’ve started to do that. All that’s missing now is a goal. So we just need another few and then we’ll be there.”
It was just the start Gray demanded and Bowie admitted: “It was just basically don’t concede early.
“We’ve played Celtic away in the Cup and at home at the start of the season and we conceded so early. Obviously it was the opposite way around this time and you think: Oh no, we’ve poked the bear. But we’ve managed to maintain the pressure and get another goal before half-time.”
Any doubting on the size of the win in Hibs eyes was made clear at full-time when the PA blasted Sunshine of Leith for a fans singalong. It’s rolled out only on special occasions, so Bowie loved it and said: “Literally, I’ve not experienced it before, so to experience that is unbelievable.
“It doesn’t come out often does it? But when it does, it’s got to be a really good day and this was one of them.”